Ibex Nomad FZ Hoody

one thing about spending lots of time outdoors, regardless of the weather - my family knows it, and holiday gifts tend to reflect that.

a gift card for REI recently yielded a luxury, a full-zip merino wool hoody that i never would have purchased otherwise. this is a mid-layer with wool thick enough to compare to an expedition-weight baselayer or a decent mid-layer like Patagonia's R1. it also has a useful hood. it's kind of like the technical equivalent of taking a really nice, lightweight merino wool sweater and dedicating it to hiking. it's very different from any of the thin wool base layers i use, and very different than all the synthetic heavy baselayer/light midlayers i have used.

Too early to review it, but I just returned from a very rainy walk and really, really like this. i had a small backpack with about 20 pounds of water and stuff. it's 45 degrees out. i wore shorts, a wicking t-shirt, this wool mid-layer, and an eVent hard shell. had the armpit zips fully open, wore both the wool hood and the rain shell hood. moved fast for an hour and a half. except for the water on my face and cascading down my legs, i'm just a little damp under the shell.

i'll get some more experience with it and review it. it's sufficiently expensive that i wouldn't dream of paying full price for it normally. but it's worth a look for the holidays and for this winter, i think.

I have the Smartwool comparable version, something like the TML full zip I think its called. Got it at a steep discount last year because it was in last seasons colour scheme......black and grey. Ha ha ha.